Ultima VII Part I: The Black Gate

"Modern Games Owe So Much To The Black Gate"

I was a fan of the Ultimas up until Ultima IV, and I didn't like that because there were games at the time that surpassed it graphically (Wasteland, Bard's Tale) and because it was such a paradigm shift in the way I had played the Ultima games I just couldn't get into being Mr. Goody-good. I liked Ultima IX, though that may have had as much to do with full voice acting and action RPG characteristics more than anything else. For the record, I despise Japanese RPGs and am a giant fan of such RPGs as Morrowind, Planescape: Torment, SoulBringer, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, and Gothic II.

So, 2007 comes along, and once again I have been sucked into the immersive world of Ultima. First, Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny, played as a Dungeon Siege mod, and then Ultima VII: Black Gate/Forge of Virtue/Serpent Isle.

I probably wouldn't be writing about Ultima VII without the existence of Exult, so bear this in mind. Exult has a number of keypad shortcuts plus the ability to adjust the brightness and resolution at will. It also allows you to press the spacebar to pause the combat, and lets you play with paper dolls in the Black Gate (only the 2nd part, Serpent Isle, featured paper dolls). Exult will let you play Ultima VII on modern machines.

The game world itself is immersive. Almost no "junk" NPCs, you get to talk to nearly everyone, and many are important to the story, at least to establish atmosphere. You don't just cast spells -- you must have reagents (plants and such found in the natural world) to power them. And you're not trying to gather the best stuff or level up, you're trying to talk to people to figure out what happened where and what to do about it.

As I've played the past few days, I've noticed a few things about it. People go to sleep at night (Gothic II, anyone?). It has fairly involved dialogue (NeverWinter Nights). Top-down isometric gameplay (Baldur's Gate, Diablo). Predetermined scripts for your characters (that include Attack Weakest foe, or Attack Nearest opponent) are very much like Dungeon Siege. People will get bent at you for taking their stuff (Gothic II, Baldur's Gate). Modern games owe Ultima VII a massive debt, and don't even seem to admit this.

The graphics are definitely dated, however. The graphics remind me almost of a Saturday Morning cartoon version of Baldur's Gate. If you must have eye candy, then this is not for you. The original Ultima games were stick figures walking around an icon-based landscape, however, so this is a quantum leap forward.

The sound is distinctly lacking. The sound of gentle ocean waves sounds like something produced on a synthesizer, and the thunderstorm sound leaves a lot to be desired. It sounds like a massive undertaking to fix this (even the Exult people haven't figured it all out), so I guess you live with it. I have the resources to fix it (access to sounds and such), but not the ability.

The music is kind of dated, considering it was all synthesizer based MIDI. I have downloaded music files for Exult, but it doesn't sound as good as it might. Not all the songs queue when they're supposed to, either. I remixed a few of them to include ambient sounds (like seagulls and waves during a Sea Shanty, and people's voices during city and bar tracks, but ended up replacing many songs with tracks from the Ultima V remake.

The replay value is something to consider. Take on different party members, make different choices, say different things to people, join the Fellowship or don't join them, etc.

It's a good game, if you're not expecting much in the way of tech to push your system over the edge. It's not Oblivion, but the world is just as, if not more, exciting.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/07